Why has there been no reply to Ihors question i learned today that Mike is not online so does not have a email account.I know this is very unusual for this day and age but for Captains in the same situation as Mike how do they find out about rule changes

I am speaking here for myself and not the NCCU which i am now president of

Just as an aside, I think it is essential that captains have email and web access.
It is easy to set up an account (FREE..), at any local library these days, so I`d advise all who are not web enabled to look into this.
One of the key tasks is to recruite county captains, if this is to gain greater support within county bodies.
I`m sure that quite a few counties could raise teams, particularly at the levels below U160...and it would be good to see more teams involved in these competitions.
But, it must be said that the web is a very useful source of player and club contact information... Many league and county bodies have good websites, with lots of player and league data, and I`m sure that more use could be made of this information, and the local congress networks & websites.

Mike Conroy, the Lancs captain, has a paper copy of the 12-13 rules. He quotes from his copy as follows:

A4: In the final stages, all players must be ECF members at bronze level or above.
E2.3: If a player plays on a board below another who is graded more than ten points lower, that player should be deemed to be ineligible.
Section C 'eligibility rule C1.2b: EXCEPT IN THE OPEN SECTION (my capitals) players must ask the controller's permission...

Sounds like Mike's copy of the rules is current and he followed them, as I would expect of such an assiduous captain.

"C 1 2.b) A player who has no grade in the list current at the start of the season may play in the Final Stage only if permission has been previously obtained from the Controller. Requests for permission must be submitted to the Controller so as to arrive at least seven days before the player is due to play. The team captain must submit evidence from the local grader or master list or other source. Such a player shall be declared ineligible (or no longer eligible) if the Controller is not (or has ceased to be) entirely convinced that the playerâ€™s strength is clearly below the relevant grading limits. The Controller shall, as soon as practical, assign the player a grading for the purposes of the Championship only."

David Sedgwick wrote:"C 1 2.b) A player who has no grade in the list current at the start of the season may play in the Final Stage only if permission has been previously obtained from the Controller.

The Counties Championship has a long history of arcane rules on eligibility. Requiring a player in an Open competition to have a grade or only be allowed to play with seven days' notice is well within these traditions.

Personally I would have thought the Controller should have discretion should allow an unannounced player to play to his previous seasons' grade for board order purposes.

David Sedgwick wrote:"C 1 2.b) A player who has no grade in the list current at the start of the season may play in the Final Stage only if permission has been previously obtained from the Controller.

The Counties Championship has a long history of arcane rules on eligibility. Requiring a player in an Open competition to have a grade or only be allowed to play with seven days' notice is well within these traditions.

Personally I would have thought the Controller should have discretion should allow an unannounced player to play to his previous seasons' grade for board order purposes.

Are these a set of Rules or Guidelines? I think Alex H has made it quite clear he was implementing a Rule and did not have discretion.

However, the the consequences of breaching this Rule are pretty drastic so it would have been prudent to draft in a transition period for the new Rule where Alex H could have had discretion to give a breach warning for say the first season if he felt it was all above board and someone wasn't trying to pull a fast one. Perhaps that could be borne in mind for significant Rule changes in other areas?

William Metcalfe wrote:What is going to happen with Yorkshire players who only have Yorkshire grades are Yorkshire captains going to have to submit a huge list of players to Alex in case they need to use 1 of those players

Such people will, apart from a few exceptions, not be ECF members. So I would never get a far as coming up with an estimate for them all.